


Another Day at the Office

by SneakyHufflepuff



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, short fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-16
Updated: 2013-09-16
Packaged: 2017-12-26 19:09:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/969266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SneakyHufflepuff/pseuds/SneakyHufflepuff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Short and sweet modern day AU, featuring Eponine as a P.I.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Another Day at the Office

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks muchly to shenshen77, who read this over for typos.

Bring Bring. Bring Bring. BRING BRING.

Eponine lifted her head from the desk of her modest office, reached blindly for the phone with one hand, and pushed her hair out of her face with the other.

"Hello?"

"Eponine!" Her mother's syrupy sweet voice brought her to complete wakefulness.

How did her mother get her number? She had changed it after the last time her parents had contacted her. The taste of betrayal was still sour in her mouth. Eponine looked at the cheap clock on her wall, freshly bought from Walmart, and wondered how long it would take her mom to ask for money. It was 10:04 in the morning.

"Eponine, sweetie. I see you've gone and started your own detective agency. Ah, that was how she'd gotten the number. Was it too much to ask for a client to find her, as well as her deadbeat parents? Your pa and I couldn't be prouder!"

Eponine drummed her fingers on her desk. It was also fresh from Walmart. Clients still wanted someone with an office, a desk and a mailbox, even if she did most of her work on the computer, rather then on stakeout.

"Eponine? You still there?"

"Yes, Mom," Eponine answered, trying to give her mother no hint of emotion to latch onto. Whenever she thought she'd made it, found some success, her parents would resurface and pull her back down again.

"You'll never guess what happened,” her mother continued, cheerily, as if they were an ordinary family and her parents weren't the worst sort of con-people."

"I suppose I won't."

"The government shut down our motel. They said it was poorly run!" Eponine could hear her father say something in the background, but of course he wasn't talking to her. No doubt he was busy running a different scheme while his wife called his only daughter. Anyway, your pa and I are in a little bit of a tight spot, and we were hoping you'd help us out."

Eponine looked at the clock. 10:05. A minute. A minute of small-talk before she asked for money. At least this time they hadn't pretended to love her for a week, and then left in the middle of the night with all her valuables. She didn't understand how her parents could have gone from loving, and spoiling her, to exploiting her overnight. But then again, as a child, she had never seen her parents flaws. She had more experience now, and her parents weren't anymore special than the deadbeat dads she found for a living.

I've just started a new business, I don't have any money to give. Goodbye, mother." Eponine hung up the phone just as her mother drew breath to speak again.

After a few blissful seconds, her cellphone started to ring again. Eponine turned it off just as the door to her tiny office opened. A blonde woman, wearing designer clothes and high heels walked in. Between her two-hundred dollar haircut and fancy shoes, she couldn't be more out of place in this neighborhood if she was painted bright orange and doing the cancan.

"My name is Cosette. I need a private eye." The woman stepped forward, her blue eyes glistening with unshed tears.

"You've got one." Eponine smiled. Cosette Valjean, the mayor's daughter, at her door. This case would certainly be interesting. "Welcome to Hugo Investigations. How can I be of service?"


End file.
